Saturday, September 29, 2007

My Citizen collection is not at all as extensive as my Seiko collection but I thought I would make an effort to photograph and structure the Citizens as well. I have not prepared any detailed information on the watches as my reference library on Citizen watches is very small and the information on the internet including the SCWF is scarce. I have done some cut and paste from my previous posts on individual watches and additional information is available in my previous Citizen collection post here together with some movement and caseback pictures;

As usual, all pictures are clickable for a larger version with additional info in the picture title.

Early 50s

Citizen got into mass production of watches after the war pretty much at the same time as Seiko in the late 40s early 50s and spent most of the 50s producing simpler dress style watches such as the ones below. As with Seikos "S" mark, we have a Citizen "C" mark. The other watch has a more unusal Citizen logo that I have not seen on any other Citizens.

Deluxe and Super Deluxe

Citizens first big hit and first million seller came in 1958 with the Deluxe followed up by the even fancier Super Deluxe from 1960. These watches were a broad range of medium/high quality dress watches in a wide range of styles and qualities from 21j to 25j. This watch is also the basis for the Citizen Chronometer.

Early 60s low/medium grade

In parallell with the Deluxe and the Super Deluxe from the late 50s until the mid 60s, Citizen also had a range of medium quality watches with the Junior and the Homer as the big sellers. I think that the Ace below has a discolored dial but still looks quite nice.

Jet Autodater

The Jet Autodater and the Super Jet Autodater were the Citizen big selling automatic watches of the mid 60s. Both watches us the rotary style autowind movement. The also came in a very wide range of styles all the way upto a 39j 150m diver watch.

Alarm

In the late 50s, Citizen purchased / licensed a Schild/Poljot alarm movement and continues to make alarm watches with this movement until the late 60s.

Early 60s high end dress

After the Deluxe and the Super Deluxe ranges, Citizens dress watches were continues in 1962/63 with the Hiline and the Diamond Flake. The Diamond Flake was a direct competitor to the Seiko Goldfeather and managed to beat it in the competition for Japans thinnest watch by 0,2 mm with the Diamond Flake movement at 2,75 mm and the Goldfeather at 2,95 mm.

Seven and Crystal Seven

Getting back into the mid 60s, Citizens sportier side were represented by the watches in the Seven series. The first one was the Crystal Seven introduced in 1965 replacing the Autodater Jet series as Citizens most common medium quality watch. It was the first watch in Japan to be sold with a Sapphire Crystal, as is evident from the name. The line was priced from JPY 11,500-19,500 at the time and was an instant success, selling more than one million watches in the first year. It had a very broad range with 21,23,27,30,33 and 43 jewels with the 33j version featured below. You can note that both the Crystal Seven and the Seven Custom below seems to have been the inspiration for Citizens recent reissue of automatic watches. The Seven Star V2 is a slightly later watch in a lower price range made in the 70s when Citizen wanted to reach a younger market segment. It has an interesting day/date window similar to the Citizen Monthly.

Early 70s high beat

The Leopard is an early 70s watch with both 36000 and 28800 high beat calibers. Below is a 36000 version.

Electrics

Citizen was a very early entrant to the Electric/electronic part of watchmaking. The Citizen X8 has a 25j 0800 caliber and was introduced in March 1966 at a price of JPY 32,000 which was comparable to the price of the 62XX GS at that time. I have not found any exact data regarding accuracy but some sources claim that it could easily have achieved Chronometer certification. The watch also exists in a caliber 0802 Chronometer version (which is supposed to have proper certification) introduced in 1969 with a very similar looking caliber but probably with a 19800 beat instead of the original 18000 bph. The Cosmotron X8 was the successor to the X8 being a simpler and cheaper watch.

Chronos

The backbone of the Citizen automatic Chronos are the 8110A and the 8100A calibers, differing only in the extra dial of the 8110A. These are 23j flyback hibeat (28800 bph) movements made from the early 70s all the way into the 90s. As a lot of people, I started out with the Bullheal, graduated to the Monaco but would now say that the PVD 8100 is my favourite.

Citizen memorabilia

This is a commemorative wall clock given to the best Citizen watch seller in some city or district for the year 1967. It is about 30x50 cm and the movement has been exchanged for a quartz movement but it is still pretty cool.